The End of Days, or Not

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End,”

Revelation 22:13

As I continue my Rock of Ages study series at church, I have covered a wide variety of artists with a focus on finding and sharing a spiritual message in secular music. Sometimes, it’s hard to do. Real hard.

Over the course of the last few months, we have covered obvious choices like The Fray or U2 and we have covered artists ranging from Johnny Cash, Jewel, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and even Nine Inch Nails. As I have mentioned in the past, these lessons are not designed to claim any of the musicians are good Christians (who are we to say?) or even Christians at all. Some may be and others may not. However, everything in life is spiritual whether we recognize it or not. Man’s greatest quest is the search for purpose — a spiritual longing that musicians often express through music.

This week, we are talking about the 1960’s one hit wonder “In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus),” by Zager and Evans. I know very little about them but I read that they met in a Methodist college. The song is apocalyptic in nature and paints a very bleak view of the future of humanity. In theme and content, it is very similar to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

As I was preparing the study, it made me wonder why so many people get wrapped up in end times speculation? A few years ago, I read the fictional Left Behind series based on one view of the tribulation period. As humans, it makes sense that we might ponder our fate as a civilization but it can be distracting from our real purpose to dwell on the idea.

About seven years ago (it is hard to believe it has been that long) I published an article on an earlier version of this blog entitled “Rapture Teaching: Is it Harming the Church.” You can read it here if you want. So far, that article has gotten more hits than everything else I have written for this site. Oddly, the second most hits were for a study on Naaman, but I think the rapture article remains on the top of the list because of our own curiosity about the future.

In this week’s study, I compared the song with Brave New World but also to our fascination with the book of Revelation. Every civilization thinks it is the last generation. We have survived the Y2K distraction and the Mayan calendar obsession. Some of you, perhaps, even survived disco or top 40 music. One day, however, this age will end. The Bible teaches, in Acts 3:19-21, that the end of the age will be a time of refreshing. God makes all things new. Life is not always pleasant, but we should not get distracted with worry over the future – especially if that worry takes us away from our mission or causes us to show hate toward others who should be ministered to instead.

I appreciate everyone who reads these articles. I write them to clear my mind and refresh my soul. It’s nice to share that with someone. I have a couple of books in the works that I hope will release this summer. I’ve been saying that for a while, I know, but I will post about them here when they are ready. Thanks for hanging out here with me.